The VIEW Project

20/06/2025

💫 Learning Disability Week 💫

Do you see me?
Yes — we absolutely do! 💙

As you know, it's Learning Disability Week and are celebrating the power of peer group support — a space where people with additional learning needs are truly seen, heard, and valued.

When people feel valued, they value each other. And that’s exactly what we see every day — friendships, laughter, encouragement, and belonging.

Here, everyone has a voice. Everyone matters.

11/06/2025

📢 Announcement 📢

We plan to move over to the Plymouth Highbury Trust social media platforms in the near future. This will mean that future posts from us and about us will all be on Highbury's Trust's Instagram and pages and will no longer be shared on here.

This decision has been made with unity and connection in mind and will mean Plymouth Highbury Trust can continue highlighting all the fantastic services that it is home to, including ours 🤩 without the potential of confusing followers and clients. Especially, when we are proud to be one big team here 🙌

With the plan to remove The VIEW Project social media pages eventually, we want to ask all you lovely people to come and follow the Plymouth Highbury Trust pages so we can continue to keep you updated about what we are getting up to and the support we can offer parents and women with a learning disability.

06/06/2025

🎉Exciting News🎉

✨️We are proud to announce that the WISER programme has been selected as a finalist in the ‘Learning Disabilities and Autism Awards 2025’.

✨️This award celebrates excellence in the support for people with learning disabilities, recognising individuals and organisations who excel in providing quality care.

✨️Delivering an accessible domestic abuse awareness course would not be achievable without the support of a talented and skilled team. The combined efforts of our leadership, marketing, project support and community volunteers, ensures the course continues to be delivered in a professional and inclusive manner.

🎉Judging will take place on 4th July at the ICC, Birmingham🎉

03/06/2025

🌈 Volunteer Week 🌈

As always, we would like to say a huge THANK YOU to all the volunteers who have supported and helped us.

Supporting the delivery of our WISER Course, Advocating for parents at meetings or doing some research for us - your hard work and dedication is beyond amazing and we are thankful to you all 🤗

14/05/2025

Our courtyard garden is blooming — and so are we!

Our amazing peer group of WISER women have been lovingly nurturing the plants in our garden, soaking up the glorious sunshine and dry, warm days.

But just as the plants need regular watering to thrive in this heat, we’re reminded how important it is to nourish ourselves too.

Self-care isn’t a luxury — it’s essential. Many of our women feel they are not worthy, but like our garden, they too deserve time, care, and compassion.

Here’s to growth, inside and out.

14/05/2025

We are celebrating a decade of empowerment, support and community through The VIEW project, formally known as Plymouth Parent Advocacy Project, which has been a corner stone of Plymouth Highbury Trust's mission to transforms lives for adults with learning disabilities in Plymouth.

The Plymouth Parent Project was first established in 2015 & the project has been a beacon of hope, providing vital and impactful services for those who can often be overlooked.

Since then, our Specialist Advocates have supported over 1000 parents.

We also offered peer support groups to bring parents together to share their experiences, build confidence, and shape better services. These groups continue today & create a safe inclusive space for connection and empowerment.

We continue to offer Easy Read information, providing accessible resources tailored to the needs of clients.

And, in 2019, a brand-new element was introduced & WISER, our domestic abuse awareness course for women with a learning disability, was created - offering an accessible course for women in Plymouth who may struggle to access mainstream courses.

Like others, we pulled through COVID, adapting to the new policies so we could still offer our support to all our clients. Meetings & court proceedings took place online & WISER was able to continue with safety measures applied.

Fast forward a few years and The VIEW embodies our original ethos of creating a supportive community where parents feel valued, heard, and included. Our Volunteer team continue providing crucial Advocacy Support at meetings before Child Protection, such as Child in Need and Early Help. Our Peer Support Groups take place regularly, offering unique social experiences for parents to share their own experiences & feel valued and WISER continues to be delivered & developed so it can be offered to even more women.

As we mark this milestone, we're proud to continue to deliver these vital services, ensuring parents & women with learning disabilities have the tools & support to thrive. Here's to The VIEW and its vibrant community - thank you to all our staff, volunteers, & supporters for making these 10 years possible.

08/05/2025

Today our team had the opportunity to visit Charles Cross Police Station in Plymouth to promote our WISER programme—specifically developed to support women with additional learning needs who are experiencing domestic abuse.

We’re incredibly grateful to the officer we spoke to, who was not only supportive but also eager to help us raise awareness. He will be signposting our service to the relevant police department that supports women victims of domestic abuse—an important step in ensuring that no woman is overlooked.

A massive thank you to the Police for taking the time to listen, share ideas, and work with us to help vulnerable women stay safe. It’s partnerships like these that make a real difference in our communities.

07/05/2025

Thank you to a lovely client for bringing in some yummy cupcakes for the team... we are wishing her a wonderful birthday and time away to celebrate 🎉🎉🎉

02/05/2025

Today Aurora our Project Support, decided to step out into the sunshine to share what we do The VIEW Project especially our Domestic Abuse Awareness Programme - WISER, for women with additional needs.

These spontaneous conversations—simple, human moments—are so valuable. They build bridges and grow support for the people who need it most.

Thank you especially to Nicki Chinnock from Wolseley Trust Plymouth, Sally – Team leader at Plus Training and Mick Henry at Devonport Jobcentre for taking the time to listen and for being open, warm, and supportive. Together, we can continue to share for the greater good.

18/04/2025

🌱 Some information about our WISER (Women in safe empowering relationships) programme

The Wiser programmes offers an alternative to mainstream domestic abuse awareness providers and provides an accessible , trauma informed and safe approach in assisting the most vulnerable women within our communities to grow in awareness and confidence.

Did you know...

🟣Women with a learning disability are 3 times more likely to experience domestic abuse than their non learning disabled peers

🟠In the UK, approximately 19% of women with a learning disability (compared to 5.1% of non learning disabled peers) experienced domestic abuse in the past year

🟢Women with learning disabilities also face unique abuses such as the withdrawal of support or manipulation of their dependency

🟣Women with learning disabilities experience a higher prevalence of social isolation and reduced support networks - This makes it harder for others to recognise they’re being abused

🟠Limited social connections increase vulnerability to ‘mate crime’ where individuals posing as friends or partners exploit trust

🟢Women with learning disabilities may struggle to recognise abusive behavior, understand their rights, or articulate their experiences due to cognitive and/or communication impairments. This makes them less likely to report abuse or be believed when they do.

🟣Behavioral cues of distress may be misattributed to their disability rather than recognised as signs of abuse

🟠Perpetrators often target women with learning disabilities, perceiving them as “easy targets” due to their trusting nature

🟢“Cuckooing” (where abusers take over a victim’s home) is a common tactic used against women with learning disabilities.

🟣Only 21.4% of UK refuge services offer support for women with learning disabilities.Lack of trained staff or appropriate communication aids further limits access

🟠Up to 97% of abuse cases involving people with learning disabilities go unreported

🟢Women with learning disabilities report not being listened to or believed by authorities, leading to self-blame and powerlessness

If you know or work with any woman who has been assessed as having a learning disability or borderline learning disability that you feel would benefit from accessing WISER, please do contact us.

Also - if you would like to learn about how to become a WISER volunteer, we’d be more than happy to give you info on how to apply 🙂

16/04/2025

We thought it was about time that we officially introduced the team under our new name, The VIEW ⬇️

So here we go 😀

14/04/2025

Is it cheating? Is it wrong? Either way… we enjoyed the process!

We used AI to help create this fun and eye-catching way to share an important message—because getting people to stop scrolling and take notice of our work matters.

Not everyone is a fan of AI and that's OK.. But like any tool, it depends on how you use it. For us, it helps us to promote our charity, raise awareness, and as a result support real people in real situations.

Creative tech like this can be part of a good cause!

Let us know what you think